Poster by Tara Billinger
Max air date: 5/23/2023
Written by: Marlena Rodriguez
After having an embarrassing wet dream in class involving Abe, Frida and Harriet invite Joan to a sleepover in an attempt to repress her feelings. Meanwhile, Confucius teaches JFK about social media and internet trolling.
Tropes in this episode:
- Affectionate Parody: The sleepover story contains a parody of the movie I Know What You Did Last Summer, when Frida and Harriet tell Joan about how they accidentally ran over a person while biking and buried him, promising never to discuss the incident. As in the movie, the victim wasn't dead, but unlike the film, he was glad they hit him, as it motivated him to improve his life.
- All Women Hate Each Other: Discussed and defied. Joan is surprised Harriet and Frida are so close because the only other girl she knew, Cleo, constantly criticized and competed with her, so she assumed girls could never be friends. She does learn to trust Harriet and Frida and genuinely becomes their friend.
- Bloody Hilarious: Cleo, Harriet, and Frida summon Bloody Mary... who promptly joins in on their sleepover fun, heedless of the fact that she gets blood everywhere.
- Creator Career Self-Deprecation: As Joan talks about how she never really had any girl friends in 2003, she mentions that, like many other young women of the time, she had to fight to get herself noticed by other men, noting how it was so difficult that "most TV writers' rooms back then only had one woman." Cue Aside Glance and Beat.note
- Cyberbullying: The episode's subplot sees Topher harassing JFK online.
- Erotic Dream: During math class, Joan has a dream about having sex with Abe.
- Flipping the Bird: During a visualization of Topher's overly long insult towards JFK, JFK gets flipped off by a turd excreted by one of his foster dads of all things.
- Grammar Correction Gag: Topher is defeated when Confucius realizes that he used the possessive "your" instead of "you're."
- Hypocritical Humor: Topher gets upset by JFK's "spicy meatball" comment because of how offensive it is towards Italians, then starts talking like an Italian stereotype when he announces his intention to get even.
- The Immodest Orgasm: Joan cries out Abe's name loudly during her sex dream, which becomes humiliating when she cries out his name in real life too, and awkwardly claims she was just excited about algebra.
- Internet Jerk: Topher pats himself on the back for being progressive but uses his online anonymity to be a "monster," as Abe calls him.
- Killed Offscreen: Joan's new foster parent is revealed to be Candide, with Joan lamenting that Toots died "in a freak clarinet accident" while she was frozen.
- Ocular Gushers: JFK cries waterfall tears in the restroom after Joan tells him to hang with guys, but he spent his life making out with girls. He claims his eyes are just peeing.
- Real Dreams are Weirder: Joan's erotic dream starts off with her making out with JFK while both are on an island in loincloth. Then JFK's face morphs into Abe's, and then it becomes Joan straddling the nose of a giant Abe's head. Then the head is suddenly the top of a lighthouse, blaring light and its foghorn. The scenery only gets weirder, dolphins are involved.
- Slumber Party: The episode's main plot is Joan attending a sleepover with Frida and Harriet.
- Stepford Smiler: Topher's foster mom Katelyn never stops smiling to the point she looks like she's in pain.
- Truth Serum: Candide orders Scudworth and Butlertron to concoct a truth serum and spike it in the girls' drinks so they will reveal their secrets. They drink it instead and reveal such secrets as Butlertron having sex with a coffee maker and Scudworth's Oedipus complex.
- Unusual Sexual Euphemism: JFK's sex chart lists not only the traditional "bases" ranking for how far one gets, but also the "dugout". Yikes....
